The Nuclear Threshold is a three-part Burn Bag mini-series exploring how deterrence, defense, and diplomacy shape nuclear risk in the 21st century. Across three conversations with leading experts, we examine why technological optimism often outpaces reality, how fragile human systems sustain deterrence, and whether diplomacy can still prevent catastrophe in an increasingly unstable world.

In this first episode, astrophysicist Dr. Laura Grego, Research Director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, joins A’ndre Gonawela to break down the science — and the myths — behind missile defense. Grego explains why the United States’ decades-long effort to build a reliable shield against nuclear attack has repeatedly failed, and how those failures risk deepening global instability. From the early “Star Wars” program to today’s multi-billion-dollar “Golden Dome” initiative, she unpacks the physics that make missile interception nearly impossible, the political incentives that keep these programs alive, and the illusion of safety that drives them. The conversation explores how misplaced faith in technology can push the world closer to, not further from, the nuclear threshold.